Enzyme Commission Summary:
The addition of toluene to fumarate to form benzylsuccinate appears to be the initial reaction in anaerobic toluene degradation [Biegert96, Beller97]. This reaction was first demonstrated by in vitro studies conducted with two denitrifying species, Thauera aromatica [Biegert96] and Azoarcus sp. strain T [Beller97]. Since then, benzylsuccinate formation from toluene and fumarate has also been demonstrated in two toluene-mineralizing sulfate-reducing bacteria [Beller97a, Rabus98] and one toluene-utilizing phototrophic [Zengler99] bacterium. Since denitrifiers, sulfate-reducers, and phototrophs represent phylogenetically distant groups of bacteria, this suggests that anaerobic toluene degradation in general may proceed via benzylsuccinate as the initial intermediate.